40 126 Constitution Art. 75 par. 17, and Art. 15, ILO Convention 169).” The petitioners’ representatives 127 provided copies of several photos depicting heavy machinery carrying out works on a road. 139. The Provincial Government of Salta responded to these last claims through a communication sent on February 21, 2005, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and copied to the IACHR Executive Secretariat, wherein it explained that Provincial Route No. 54 was not a new road, but one being improved to avoid flooding, for which the adjacent communities had been consulted. The works were deemed necessary to maintain the continuous access of the communities to health and education services. Moreover, the General Transit Directorate had been instructed “to limit its works to the levels of elementary conservation and maintenance of the Route, and to abstain from carrying out works that affect 128 the surrounding plant cover.” Deforestation of the area 140. According to the evidence submitted, deforestation activities were being carried out in the ancestral territory of the indigenous communities, in express violation of the prohibition established in Decree 2609 of 1991 of the Provincial Government. 141. The purpose of the deforestation was to provide firewood for the brick factories that were to supply the demand caused by the public works undertaken by the Provincial Government. The petitioners submitted the testimony of Anthropologist Morita Carrasco, 129 as well as of pictures of an artisanal brick production, and of some piles of wooden posts. 142. On August 5, 2002, during a working meeting held in Salta, the President of the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs gave the IACHR representatives a copy of a report on the “Environmental Deterioration of Fiscal Lots 55 and 14 of the Salta Chaco”, conducted in May 2001 under the direction of the National Parks Administration. After detailed observations, this study concludes: “Environmental deterioration has been very large, and persists. The main agent is cattle-raising, with continuous overgrazing, and in second place ‘mining’ forest extraction. These activities were promoted by the National State and the Provincial State. Therefore the aboriginal claim to reparation of this historical damage by such authorities is pertinent.” 143. On February 8, 2005, the petitioners reported that the logging and deforestation of the area continued. The Provincial Government of Salta responded to these claims in a communication sent on February 21, 2005 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and copied to the Executive Secretariat of the IACHR, in which it explained that an agreement with the National Police was ready for signature, for the 126 Communication by the petitioners received on February 8, 2005, and transmitted to the State by the IACHR on February 16, 2005. 127 Communication by the petitioners received on February 8, 2005, and transmitted to the State by the IACHR on February 16, 2005. 128 Communication by the Secretary General of the Governor’s Office of the Province of Salta to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 21, 2005, copied to the IACHR. 129 ”’The bricks for the Police post works come from a clearing owned by Mr. Loche in the same area of Misión La Paz. All of the works for the Border Post, Morillos and even the Paraguay band come from here. And the firewood is extracted from the same area, everything is now being cleared. Some boys go there to work and we see the machinery and that brick factory. Sometimes two batches of 50.000 bricks are burnt twice a week. We have calculated: every 1000 bricks require 10 cubic meters of wood, for 3 days. Each burning is the equivalent of 1 km of wood. And this is done twice a week”. // Another person added: ‘In my area (Km. 1) the same is happening, they go with chainsaws and devastate everything, cutting even the smaller trees’. (…) After this meeting, in the month of April Anthropologist Morita Carrasco, as may be read in her testimonial declaration, made a visit to Fiscal Lot 55 in the Department of Rivadavia of the Province of Salta to carry out a photographic survey of the destruction of the environment, and she was able to confirm the foregoing testimonies, taking pictures of the brick factory, the devastated areas of the forest, and piles of wood that are legally protected such as palo santo, and others such as palo Amarillo which are to be used to build river defenses (…).” Communication by the petitioners received on September 25, 2000, and transmitted to the State by the IACHR on September 25, 2000.